It’s starting to sound like Gary Kubiak may not be too happy with Arian Foster

First of all, Arian Foster said he was “terrible” against the Ravens. So if he says anything about the media being negative, I’ll read him his own words. Actually, I won’t read ‘em since I’m going to be in St. Louis hugging the Puma, but hopefully someone will.

“I played terrible. I didn’t play a good game, it was obvious. That will never happen again. I played a bad game. It doesn’t matter what the variables are; I played a bad game. As a football player, I didn’t bring my A-game.”

Gary Kubiak may agree. In the last two weeks, he has said things that can be interpreted as very mild criticism of his running back.

For instance, last week I wrote that the Raiders had geared their defense around stopping the run, apparently believing the Texans wouldn’t be able to muster much of a passing game without Andre Johnson on the field.

A couple of days later, Kubiak corrected me. Well, maybe not me, but he corrected the notion that the Raiders consistently had brought a safety to the line of scrimmage to stop the running game.

“There’s been some people say they stacked the box on Arian, and I don’t see it that way. We had our opportunities to run against seven-man fronts and we didn’t run it well and we pride ourselves on running against eight-man fronts. That’s why we continue to run the ball. I don’t see it that way. Them taking Arian away, I just don’t think we played as well as we can play. We’ll have to play a hell of a lot better this week because this group we’re going to line up against is as good as there is. We got to stay committed to the run and do a better job doing it.”

In the NFL, it’s important to parse the head coach’s words. That’s especially true with a guy like Kubiak, who is very, very honest in assessments of his team. For instance, I’ve gone back and read his quotes about Jacoby Jones a couple of times. I still can’t tell if he was criticizing Jacoby or what. After Sunday’s game, he flat out said Jacoby had played well against the Raiders. I don’t know if he misspoke, but that’s what he said. I’m in no position to argue. Coaches see things on video the rest of us simply can’t see.

OK, back to Arian Foster. He carried 22 times for 68 yards against the Raiders. That’s an average of 3.1 yards per carry. He gained 20 yards on his first carry and got 48 on his next 21. That’s 2.3 yards per carry.

Twelve of his 22 runs went for 2 yards or less. Only five went for at least five yards. As a result, the Texans were in third-and-long most of the afternoon.

Fifteen times, they needed to get at least five yards on third down. They got the first down four times. Schaub was 5 for 13 and sacked twice.

Third-and-long is a tough way to do business in a league with blitz-happy defenses. It would be a mistake to say Foster wasn’t productive against the Raiders. Besides the 22 runs, he caught five balls for 116 yards. So he accounted for 184 yards of offense in all.

But he was unable to do the things he’s counted on to do. Whether that was his fault or the defenses or the blocking, that’s the kind of thing that makes for good saloon conversation.

Against Baltimore, it was almost exactly the same story. Foster got 49 yards on 15 carries for a 3.3-yard average. Of his 15 runs, only three of them went for more than three yards. Eight of them were for one yard or less.

Foster got only 32 yards on nine carries in the first half, and when the second half opened, Ben Tate got the first three carries. Was that a message to Foster? If it was supposed to be, it didn’t work.

Foster gained 17 yards on six carries in the second half. He got 10 on one carry, seven on the other five.

Once more, the Texans were in third-and-long a lot. Schaub converted his first three, but only two of his final eight.

For the season, Foster’s yards-per-carry average has dropped from 4.9 in 2010 to 4.0 this season.

When asked about Foster’s comments that he’d played “terrible,” here’s what Kubiak said:

“Well hopefully you got players that feel that way. You go out there 16 times in this League and players know. Players are smart. They know what it takes to win. They know what it takes to be successful. You got to be honest with yourself sometimes in knowing you’re not doing something right. Obviously, it wasn’t all Arian. Arian did a lot of good things in the game, too, but we need him at the top of his game for us to be successful, but he needs a lot of help, too. You want guys battling like that and I know we got the right guys, so we’ll go to work on making it better.”

On the running game in general, he said:

“First off, we’re not a bad running football team. I think we’re seventh in the League, but our standard of running the ball is very high and I don’t think we’ve met the standard the last two weeks. Where are my concerns? My concern is with the group. It’s not with the line. It’s not with the backs. It’s with everybody and I told the players today, I just don’t think we’re doing the little things that we do that put us at the top of the League, some of the little extra things we do work-wise, so I’m calling on them to get that done. I’m calling on each one of them to take a look at themselves. We knew yesterday that team would be tough to run on, but we tried to stay committed to it and keep ourselves on schedule. For the most part, we did that until really late in the third quarter. We’ve got to run the ball better for our football team to be successful. Our guys know that, so my challenge is for it to get better and I think it’s got to get better with everybody. It’s not just one particular group.”

There was also this quote that can be interpreted a dozen different ways:

“Yesterday, we went in there and went toe-to-toe with a dang good football team and we needed a new hero. Somebody needs to step up and make that play. Until Andre gets back, someone has got to assume that responsibility.”

He could be disappointed that Foster hasn’t been that guy, but it’s not that simple. Some teams use the running game to set up the pass. Others do it the opposite way. Either one, works.

When a team can’t make plays in one area, when it becomes one dimensional, it becomes much easier to defend.

As long as Foster is gaining two yards or less on 54 percent of his carries as he has the last two weeks, the Texans are a much easier team to defend.

Maybe we should have seen this kind of start coming. Foster missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, and then got just 10 carries the first three games of the season. He looked like his old self against the Steelers in going for 155 yards on 30 carries.

That was the game the Texans hoped to ease him back into the lineup, and he ended up carrying them to their most satisfying victory of the season.

In two games since, he has gotten 117 yards on 37 carries, and the Texans have had a tough time offensively.

There’s a ton of pressure on him this season. Because he was an undrafted free agent, he didn’t begin his NFL career with a fat signing bonuses.

But he if comes close to having the same kind of productivity he had last season, he could be in for a huge payday after this season. So far, this season has been a tough go.

Every little thing is connected to every other little thing, but it seems clear the Texans sure hoped for more from Foster.

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